Love Hurts
by spacegypsy1
Summary: A Cam and Carolyn tale.  One shot.


Love Hurts

spacegypsy1

Cam and Carolyn. One shot.

~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~

"Ow. Crap! Doc, ya wanna tell me what the hell's goin' on?" Cam tried to sit up, but found himself unable to move, naked under green sheets, and obviously in one of the surgical bays.

"Oh. You're awake. That's odd. I thought you were dead." Dr. Lam, voice monotone and professional, continued monitoring the colonel's vitals.

"Ha ha, very funny. Not dead, hurts too much to be dead."

"Well the signs were all there, Colonel Mitchell, if you weren't dead you were well on your way to getting there. Pupils dilated, breathing erratic, blood coagulating on your head, arm bone out of whack and practically sticking out of your skin, possible internal bleeding, face looking remarkably like ground chuck." Turning away from his intense regard through his obviously painfully swollen eyes, Carolyn fiddled with the equipment.

"Arm bone out of whack?" Cam tried a slight snicker and grimaced in pain.

"Okay, ulna. Snapped in two like a tooth pick. Should be dead. I told you, distinctly, I don't know if I can take this...this coming back to me in pieces, bleeding, barely alive, we're done...that is if you survive."

"Ow. Right. Got it. How's Jackson?"

"Been better. A lot better."

"The big guy?"

"Not at his best."

"Vala?"

"Better then the others." Carolyn sighed with worry, trying to hold herself together. "Dr. Warner! Your patient is still awake."

Flinching at her sudden and very loud yell, Cam groaned in agony. "Can you up the juice, baby?"

"They already did." She glanced across to the anesthesiologist, then told the patient, "Don't call me baby. We're through. Cowboy, hotshot, hell-raiser is not what I signed up for." She jotted something on his chart. "Doctor, he's all yours." Carolyn nodded at the surgeon who approached.

Dr. Warner should have been used to the shenanigans around this place, he'd been patching up SG-1 for years. But, this was a new twist. Lam and Mitchell. Landry had decreed the CMO was not allowed to operate on the colonel since the two were an item now. Good call there. She looked like she'd kill him herself if he didn't die from his wounds. Which he probably wouldn't, since they weren't critical. Serious, but not critical.

"Honey, come on!" Cam barely croaked out.

"She's out the door. You know she'll be in the observation room throughout the surgery. She'll cool off."

"Oh, grea..." Meds went into effect and Cam drifted off.

~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~

General Landry entered the observation room and quietly took a seat next to his daughter. "Wanna talk?"

"Absolutely not." Leaning forward, elbows braced on her knees, Carolyn watched the proceedings below.

"He'll be fine."

"I know that!" She seemed to snap out a bit more harshly than she intended.

"Carolyn, you knew what he was like, what his job was, when you first arrived."

"I know that."

"I told you..."

She sat straight up in her chair. "Don't! Don't you dare say that!"

"I'm sorry. Hey, I talked to your mother, she said to let her know if you needed her, she'd be on a plane a-sap." Landry put his arm around his daughter's shoulder. "You do know, this is why your mom left me? Not because of the hours, days, weeks, I was gone, but the fact that I would probably come back in a body bag."

Carolyn covered her face with her hands and wept as her father pulled her into his arms, whispering. "It's hard to love a man who works with one foot in the grave, but you're strong, Carolyn."

~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~

Vala looked around, making sure no one watched her. "Mitchell?" she whispered and Cam popped one eye open.

"Damn. I'm alive." He said through a parched and scratchy throat, adding, "Hey, princess."

"I brought you something." Holding a rapidly thawing popsicle up, Vala grinned. "It's cherry. They said no food or water, just that weird little wet but not really wet stick for your lips. But I thought a swipe of frozen cherry juice might be a nice addition."

"Later." Cam drifted off and Vala sighed with worry.

"He's fine." Carolyn sounding very grumpy...or maybe disgruntled, stood right behind Vala.

Without someplace to hid the dripping mess, Vala gave up and turned, fingers red and sticky. "Sorry. I just wanted to cheer him up."

"Don't. I mean don't give him that right after anesthesia. He'll get sick. Maybe. Or. Maybe not. But..." The doctor shook her head and left abruptly.

"They're never going to change, none of them!" Vala yelled after her friend.

Sticking her head back into the doorway, Carolyn glared. "That, Vala, is exactly why I'm breaking it off with him! This is too hard. I can't watch him tear his body to pieces anymore. One of these days he's going to come back and no one will be able to patch him up. I think he has a death wish."

Vala laughed. "No. I think he has a '_SG-1 male save the world and everyone in it'_ wish. That's my Daniel. And Samantha's Jack. And Ishta's Teal'c. And now your Cameron. Deal with it or be even more miserable. Take it from me, I know."

Slowly the doctor shuffled back into the room, her gaze on her sleeping prince. "He looks so peaceful, well except for the swelling, bruising, and stitches."

"And that big red mark that looks like what a hickey probably looks like inside out." Vala, one finger near millimeters from the very prominent abrasion on Cam's cheek, grimaced.

"Yes, there's that." Carolyn gently ran her fingers through Cam's hair.

"Carolyn, once you join this women's exclusive club, you're in it for life...that is of course unless you want to make yourself exceptionally unhappy, and move and find another job and never see any of us ever again." Vala gave her friend a quick hug. "I have wine in my room."

"Alright. Wine it is." Bending down, Carolyn brushed Cam's lips with a sweet gentle kiss. "I love you," she said, then kissed his forehead.

"oo, too." The colonel murmured.

~END


End file.
